OT DAY 203 - You Think God Is Kidding? (Please click here for English podcast)

Please click the link below to my new 40 days Break.Build site any time you like to having a 40 days "Break.Build" daily devotion with one to two people as a discipler to help those Jesus prepares for you to disciple. You need to know that the call and purpose of my Break.Build and this Discipler123 blog/podcast is for you to become a discipler to help more people to have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus and then they can become disciplers too:
http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Please click these links to the app. Andy Ng wrote if you have an Android cel.:

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

       Bless our God, O peoples;
                       let the sound of his praise be heard,
9          who has kept our soul among the living
                       and has not let our feet slip.

                             Psalm 66:8-9

                                                                       

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Leviticus 26:3-46)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus 25&version=ESV

3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 
14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,

                              Leviticus 26: 3-6, 14-18

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     This chapter is full of assurance and full of terror. We like to hear good words and we have lots of good things here in this chapter but only to verse 13. Then from verse 14 to 39 it states the terrible consequence of not listening to God. From verse 40 to 46 gives the Israelites and us a way out if we are willing to repent. Do you think God is kidding? 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     Given the generous nature of God's work in creation, where it looked so good and God gave Adam and Eve so many great things to eat, it is not surprising that God wants people to enjoy food, not to mention peace, security, and an awareness of God's walking about among them.  Leviticus uses the same word as comes in Genesis 3 to describe that walking.  If fact, it is almost promising a return to the garden of Eden. But then the same challenge applies to Israel as applied to Adam and Eve.  God's plan will work out only if they live the way God directs.  The chapter spends most of its time describing the horrible consequences that will follow if they do not…
     It looks on through the story that will take Israel into exile, and it needs reading from the perspective of people reading it there.  They can look back over Israel's story and see it has indeed been troubled by sickness and famine and by attackers such as the Moabites, Philistines, and Assyrians.  The Assyrians terminated the life of Ephraim, and the Babylonians did that to Judah, destroying the temple in Jerusalem…
     When we ask, "Why did this happen to me?" we are looking for meaning.  We can cope a little better with disaster if it makes sense than if it is simply random.  It often does look random.  Leviticus enables the exiles to see that in their case it was not.  The grim things that had happened meant something.  Being thrown out of the country made sense because they had ignored the rule about Sabbath years for centuries.   God was now letting the country take its accumulated Sabbaths…
      Further,  in general God's actions had been more like a parent's chastisements than a judge's punishments. 

John Goldingay. Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.185-186.

      We talked about the Year of Jubilee(Sabbath year) yesterday and here in this passage Professor Godlingay told us clearly that because "Being thrown out of the country made sense because they had ignored the rule about Sabbath years for centuries.   God was now letting the country take its accumulated Sabbaths…"
      Do you think God is kidding about all those severe punishment? No, because almost everything says in this chapter happened to the Israelites already. If this is happening to you now, repent and let God to be your God, your loving Father, your Lord and everything will change. Why? Because He surely loves you and He just want to do anything He can to call your back HOME! 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to be willing to repent each day of our unwilling to listen to your command so that we are at home walking with your daily.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you think God is kidding of all those disasters? Do you really know why? Are you sure what you think is right?

2. How would this chapter help you to be a better listen and obey disciple of Jesus?

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

Break.Build: http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/